1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a painting wagon for carrying a plurality of components to be painted through a painting facility and more specifically to an expandable painting wagon which is adjustable between an expanded configuration for facilitating convenient loading and unloading of the components thereon and a contracted configuration for increasing the number of components that can be carried per unit length of the wagon. The present invention further relates to a method for simultaneously painting a plurality of such components.
2. Background Information
Certain body panels used in motor vehicles are painted separately from the remainder of the motor vehicle to which the panels are to be attached. Such panels are often painted by mounting a plurality of the panels on a wagon, moving the wagon through a painting facility, and applying paint to the panels as they are moved through the facility. The painting facility may include, for example, a multiple stage washer, booths for color coat application, booths for clear coat application, cure ovens, and a cool down section. Individual wagons may be moved through the paint facility by a wagon propelling mechanism, such as an in-ground chain conveyor which pulls the paint wagons along at a predetermined spacing.
The costs of painting a particular component are significantly impacted by the throughput (i.e., the number of components that can be painted per unit time or per wagon). This is largely affected by the number of components that can be mounted per unit length on the wagon.
It should also be noted that the layout and construction of the paint facility places restrictions on the wagon size. More particularly, physical limitations of the cure oven width and height, tunnel radius, spacing between wagons, etc. define limitations for the wagon size. In addition, the track along which the wagon is translated may be oval or rectangular, thus requiring sharp turns which mandate a compactness for the wagon not necessarily required for the straighter portions of the track. These dimensional limitations further impact throughput. It is thus desirable to maximize the number of components which are mounted per unit length on the painting wagon, especially at certain areas within the painting facility that have such dimensional limitations.
Traditionally, one wagon design has been used for all components. The wagon includes a translating base which carries a removable top portion. The top portion includes multiple mounting pin locations, which enable the components to be mounted on the top portion with desired spacing therebetween. The number of components which can be mounted on the wagon is limited by the component size and by the spacing between components. To maximize the number of components per unit length of the wagon, the components are mounted on the wagon as close as possible to one another.
In certain instances, the conventional method of mounting components as close as possible to one another does not take advantage of all available space on the painting wagon. More particularly, in some instances, only a portion of a body panel is to be painted a given color. For example, plastic fascias for certain automobiles are two toned, and therefore, only one-half of the fascia is painted while the other half is masked. In this situation, it would be desirable for the components to be nested such that the portion of each component to be painted overlaps the portion of the adjacent component that is not to be painted or masked to thereby maximize the number of components per unit length of the wagon. Nesting of components in such fashion, however, poses problems in that with the components mounted so closely to one another, it is difficult to load the components onto the cart before painting and unload the components off the cart after painting without bumping the components into one another and thus damaging the surface finish of the components.
In other situations, where it is desirable for the entire component to be painted so that nesting of components during painting is not practical, it may, nevertheless, be desirable for the components to be nested or overlapped on a shorter length wagon while the components are not being painted to enable the wagon to more easily negotiate tight turns during its travel through the painting facility.
From the above, it can be appreciated that there exists a need for a painting wagon that enables the components to be nested on the wagon during certain periods of a painting cycle and to be spaced further apart during other periods of the painting cycle. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to satisfy this need. To accomplish this object, the present invention provides a painting wagon for carrying a plurality of components to be painted and translating the plurality of components through a painting facility, the painting wagon comprising: a component supporting assembly having a plurality of component mounting structures each constructed and arranged to permit an associated one of the plurality of components to be mounted thereon, so that said components can be mounted in side by side relation to one another along a given direction, the component supporting assembly being constructed and arranged to be movable between: (1) an expanded configuration in which the component mounting structures are positioned in spaced apart relation with respect to one another along the given direction so that a number of components are mounted per unit length in the given direction; and (2) a contracted configuration in which the component mounting structures are positioned in closer proximity to one another relative to the spaced apart relation so that at least one of the components mounted thereon has a portion thereof disposed in overlying relation with respect to an adjacent one of the components and so that the number of components mounted per unit length in the given direction is greater than when the component supporting assembly is in the expanded configuration; an actuating assembly operatively connected with the component supporting assembly and constructed and arranged to move the component supporting assembly between the contracted configuration and the expanded configuration so that the component supporting assembly is 1) positioned in the expanded configuration to facilitate mounting of the components on the component mounting structures, 2) positioned in the contracted configuration while the painting wagon is translated through at least a portion of the painting facility, and 3) positioned in the expanded configuration to facilitate dismounting of the components from the component mounting structures; and a base structure constructed and arranged to support the component supporting assembly and the actuating assembly and to permit translation of the painting wagon through the paint facility.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a method of painting a portion of each of a plurality of components. The method comprises a method for simultaneously painting a portion of each of a plurality of components comprising: providing a mask to cover a portion of each of the components so as to prevent paint from being applied to the portion; mounting the components in spaced relation to one another on a paint wagon; moving the components into closer proximity to one another relative to the spaced relation so that at least one component has an unmasked portion thereof to be painted disposed in overlying relation with respect to a masked portion of an adjacent one of the components; applying paint to said components so that the unmasked portions thereof are painted; moving the components back to the spaced apart relation to one another; and removing the components from the paint wagon.
Other objects, features and characteristics of the present invention along with the method of operation and assembly will be appreciated from study of the following detailed description and the appended claims and drawings, all of which form part of this application and wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts in the various figures.